Bathsheba and the Witch of Endor: The Fall of the Two Royal Houses and its Polemics in 1 and 2 Samuel

Abstract

Bathsheba’s role in the story of the house of David bears an often-overlooked intertextual connection to the story of the Witch of Endor. In the books of Samuel, the two women triggered a chain of events that later led to the fall of the houses of David and Saul, respectively. While past scholarship has independently studied the importance of the stories of these two women, the present paper describes the intertextual connections and the significance of these two stories in the matrix of 1 and 2 Samuel and the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH). The two royal houses in the stories of these two women are subtly indicted for adulterous affairs against Yahweh. Consequently, the story of Saul at Endor and the story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba are not only intertextually connected to each other but also fulfil a subversive agenda.